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It's not about "boosting nukes" it's about countering nuclear energy FUD (mostly about how dangerous nuclear energy is). Renewables would probably be comparable
by throwaway894345 5y ago
It's not about "boosting nukes" it's about countering nuclear energy FUD (mostly about how dangerous nuclear energy is). Renewables would probably be comparable, but I'm very skeptical about your "several times better" claim. Nuclear energy and renewable energy are both very low carbon sources with very few non-pollution-derived deaths (rooftop solar exceeds nuclear energy for deaths, even including nuclear anomalies like Chernobyl IIRC). So there's no way that the carbon gap between fossil fuels and nuclear is significantly larger (much less 3x larger) than the gap between fossil fuels and renewables.
- ncmncm 5y agoWhat stops nuke construction today is that it costs a hell of a lot more, and you don't get any kWh out for years, if ever. Most usually, lately, you pour in $billions for years and get nothing out but a lot of scrap concrete.
- throwaway894345 5y agoI don't know that it costs "a hell of a lot more" for a unit of reliable energy, but yeah, you can deploy renewable energy in smaller units more quickly (it might take you a decade to build out a GW of nuclear capacity or a GW of solar capacity, but at least in the case of solar you don't need the full GW to complete before you can start selling power). However, to be clear, this is the economic argument, not the health argument that the OP was debating.